Globalization and Higher Education Conference

As part of its continuing effort "to provide thoroughly developed research and educational resources, through innovative, interdisciplinary inquiries into the processes associated with globalization," the Globalization Research Center organized an important conference, Globalization and Higher Education, held on February 20-23, 2002 in Honolulu, Hawai'i. The conference was organized by Professor Peter T. Manicas and included not only distinguished theorists from a variety of pertinent disciplines and areas of the globe, including Europe, Australia, China and South America, but also persons who have been important agents in the current changes, as "entrepreneurs," or as ranking officers in critical institutions, public and private. Click here for a list of conference participants.

Participants engaged in a "dialogic" exchange over three days in an effort to understand the links between globalization, new technologies, and the restructuring of higher education. While an online component of the conference continues preliminary to the publication of a volume, there is also an open online conference for the UH and global community at this site (link to the discussion board). This open conference is facilitated by Peter Manicas and Jaishree Odin. A reading list is also available.

What are the driving forces, mechanisms, and potentiality of globalized higher education? How will higher education be shaped by globalizing capitalism, corporatization, and new capacities and demands? What are the consequences for the underdeveloped world?

Restructuring Higher Education Critical Questions:

How will for-profit institutions influence non-profits, and higher education more generally. What are the consequences of "privatization" and market rationality on institutions of higher education, on faculties, administrations, students as consumers, and on claims on public moneys? What are the consequences on income opportunities, inequality, and social mobility?

Higher Education and the New Technologies Critical Questions:

What are the pluses and minuses, advantages and dangers of the new technologies? Will market imperatives influence their use (and/or abuse)? If so, how? Who are the players? Corporations, the state, faculties, consumers? Are we at the beginning of a "revolution" in pedagogy? If so, what are the consequences?

Tasks and Goals of Higher Education Critical Questions:

What is the mission of the University? Teaching and research what? For whom? For what? Are the ideals of Humboldt or John Dewey irrelevant?

Higher Education and the Political: The National and the International Critical Questions:

What is the relation of globalized higher education and modernization? What is the role of the State, international agencies, the UN, NGO's? What are the implications for the emerging global political economy and on global inequality?